I woke up this morning with the singular goal of snow shovelling our driveway and front steps after having been away for 3-ish weeks to travel. It didn't look that bad, only about a foot of snow, so I picked up a shovel and got to work.
Unfortunately, it was -20 C outside with a -29 C windchill! I was sweating under my jackets but my hands and feet froze stiff. Worse, there have been a few warmer periods that melted a layer of snow, so I spent more time hacking through ice than I did shovelling. Our poor shovel cracked halfway through when I tried to break apart a particularly large block of ice at the end of the driveway.
The whole ordeal took me about 2.5 hours. I normally don't log housework in my FitnessBlender calendar, but this felt like a workout! My back and shoulders are certainly unhappy with me and doing the whole thing before breakfast was surprisingly tiring.
But now it's all done, our front yard is no longer a hazard, and it's supposed to warm up tomorrow and hopefully melt off the last of the ice I couldn't break. I had been planning to do a lower-body workout today, which I think I'll push to tomorrow: I don't want to hold on to weights when my hands are all torn up from the cold and the shovel. I really didn't think a bit of shovelling would take so much out of me, but at least it feels productive and one less thing on my to-do list.
My workout today: shovelling
I woke up this morning with the singular goal of snow shovelling our driveway and front steps after having been away for 3-ish weeks to travel. It didn't look that bad, only about a foot of snow, so I picked up a shovel and got to work.
Unfortunately, it was -20 C outside with a -29 C windchill! I was sweating under my jackets but my hands and feet froze stiff. Worse, there have been a few warmer periods that melted a layer of snow, so I spent more time hacking through ice than I did shovelling. Our poor shovel cracked halfway through when I tried to break apart a particularly large block of ice at the end of the driveway.
The whole ordeal took me about 2.5 hours. I normally don't log housework in my FitnessBlender calendar, but this felt like a workout! My back and shoulders are certainly unhappy with me and doing the whole thing before breakfast was surprisingly tiring.
But now it's all done, our front yard is no longer a hazard, and it's supposed to warm up tomorrow and hopefully melt off the last of the ice I couldn't break. I had been planning to do a lower-body workout today, which I think I'll push to tomorrow: I don't want to hold on to weights when my hands are all torn up from the cold and the shovel. I really didn't think a bit of shovelling would take so much out of me, but at least it feels productive and one less thing on my to-do list.
Best wishes to all of you staying warm!